Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1 . Free movement of goods - Trade with non-member countries - Inward processing arrangements - Triangular operations authorized by the national authorities after consultation with the Commission - Failure to levy intra-Community monetary compensatory amounts - Subsequent challenge by the Commission on the ground that traders had obtained an unjustified advantage - Not permissible

( Commission Directive 75/349, Art . 4 )

2 . Community law - Principles - Legal certainty - Rules imposing charges - Requirement of clarity and precision

Summary

1 . Having laid down, at the request of the national authorities dealing with an application by traders for the benefit of inward processing arrangements for triangular operations, the procedure to be followed for the application of Directive 75/349 to such triangular operations, the Commission must have taken the view that those operations could be authorized under that procedure without involving a notional trade in goods between the Member States concerned giving rise to the levying of intra-Community monetary compensatory amounts . Accordingly, the Commission cannot subsequently complain of those Member States' failure to foresee the possibility of levying such compensatory amounts and to consider that the benefit of inward processing arrangements had to be refused on account of the unjustified advantage, within the meaning of Article 4 of the aforesaid directive, gained by the traders concerned from non-payment of such monetary compensatory amounts .

2 . The principle of legal certainty requires that rules imposing charges on the taxpayer must be clear and precise so that he may know without ambiguity what are his rights and obligations and may take steps accordingly .